Buckle.



. A. HOLDEN.

BUCKLE.

APPLIUA'rIoN FILED Dnc. 2a, 190s.

Patented Sept.13,1910.

5 noem/'hoz @fai/imam@ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER A. HOLDEN, OF ANSONIA, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE ROBERT N. BASSETT COMPANY, OF SHELT'ON, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

BUCKLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 13, 1910.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VALTER A. HOLDEN, a citizen of the United. States, residing at Ansonia, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Buckles, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to buckles of the lock lever class designed to carry the eX- tremity of a webbing and to operate along the running portion thereof to form an adjustable loop, and its object is to provide a buckle of this character having a minimum number of parts and in which the lever is provided with one member for holding the buckle closed and another member for holding the running portion of the webbing.

With this and other objects in view my invention consists in the details of construction and manner of operation more fully set forth in the following description and accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to corresponding parts.

In the drawings: Figure l is a front view of my buckle showing a part of the lever and attached webbing broken away; Fig. 2, a vertical section of the parts shown in Fig. 1, Figs. 3 and 4, rear and side views respectively of the buckle before it is mounted on the webbing; Figs. 5 and 6, front and rear views of a modification, and Fig. 7, a vertical section of this modification strung with webbing.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive my buckle comprises the back A and the lever B. The back A is bent up out of a single piece of wire its middle portion being left straight to form the bar a. The wire is then bent downwardly and inwardly from the ends of the bar a and returned upon itself forming the inwardly projecting fingers b, b, then forwardly and slightly downwardly forming the sides c, c, and the extremities are then bent inwardly toward each other forming the pintles d, d. The lever B is made out of a sheet metal blank bent up to form the front portion or shield e and the locking member f having the web engaging edge g. On each side of the locking member f the metal is slit and bent downwardly to form the web holding teeth or spurs h, 71, and the metal is further slit on each side of the teeth l, h to form the pintle straps 2', c' which latter are curled around the pintles (l, l to form a pivoted connection or hinge between the back A and lever B.

The buckle constructed as above described is provided with an opening which lies substantially in a horizontal plane, that is, in a plane at right angles with the normal plane of the webbing. The pintles cl, cl which if desired may be extended toward each other, may be regarded as the front side of this opening and the bar a together with the bends I), b the rear side. The extremity 7c of the webbing C is cramped o1' threaded through the opening between the bar cc and the fingers b, I), then is folded around the bar a and may if desired be sewed upon itself by stitches l. The extremity of the webbing being thus secured to the buckle the running portion is carried downwardly and returned passes upwardly through the opening between the lever B and the back of the buckle thereby forming an adjustable loop in the webbing carrying the cast off piece D. During the operation of webbing the buckle the front portion of the lever is raised so that the opening presents an unobstructed passage to the webbing. Vhen it is desired to close the buckle to lock the running portion of the webbing in its adjusted position, the front member c of the lever is lowered causing the edge g to first engage the running portion below the bar a and finally just above the bar a. During the movement of the edge (l between these two positions, that is in passing by the front of the bar a, it presses the bar rearwardly acting through the medium of the interposed layers of webbing. When the edge g has passed above the bar a, the bar springs back again to its normal position 'causing a slight deliection of the running portion of the webbing forwardly in under the edge g which latter crowds the running portion rearwardly against the upper corner of the loop formed by the stitched extremity c as shown in Fig. 2. When the buckle is closed the teeth h, h coact with the lower portion of the bar a to grip or clamp the running portion. Thus when the buckle is closed the teeth h, h grip or clamp the running portion of the webbing and the edge g not only locks the lever to prevent its being upset or opened but also by crowding the running portion as above described reduces to a minimum the unsightly hump caused by the top of the stitched loop proc jecting rearward beyond the plane of the running portion.

It will be observed that in employing a lever having one edge for holding the buckle closed and a diiferent edge for clamping the webbing I am enabled to utilize a wire back or frame which presents a single me1nber or bar alone to the lever edges instead of a plurality of members or a face portion of a sheet met-al plate, which latter are usually essential for the perfect operation of a buckle having a single lever edge mounted to swing in front instead of above the back. It will further be observed that the bends b, Z) not only serve as inger pieces and balancing members but also are suiiiciently resilient to permit the bar a to yield bodily in response to the wedging action of the lever.

My inventionis not conlined to the particular construction of the buckle above described since both the lever and back are susceptible of modification particular instances being shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 in which the back A is bent to form a wire loop having a continuous front side m and a divided rear sidefn, a from the middle portion of which latter the extremities of the wire are-bent downwardly to form the depending ngers 0, 0. The lever B is provided with a front portion or shield 70 and has itstop portion slit at intervals andbent to form the downwardly projecting web gripping member y, the rearwardly projecting locking members 7', 1" and the pintle straps ls, s which latter are curled around the pintle bar 'or front side m of the back to form a pivotal connection between the back Al and the lever B. The extremity lo of the vwebbing C is folded around the rear side of the back A', that is, around the horizontal members n, n and the vertical'members 0, o, and is sewed upon itselfby stitches Z. Thus secured -the webbing is carried downwardly andreturned passing upwardly through the opening between the lever B and the stitched extremity lc. Strung as described the buckle operates as in the preceding figures with the exception that the web gripping member g is in the center and clamps the layers of webbing against the vertically disposed members 0, o which latter are free to yield rearwardly when the lock ing members r, r snap by the bars n, a. By arranging the locking members r, 1' on each side oit' the vertically disposed members o, 0 of the wire back leaves a free path for the snap over action of the locking members thereby preventing these latter from dragging on the webbing eXcept at theimmediate snap over points. I am thus enabled to present to the edge of each locking membera single yielding bar.

Having now described my invention what I claim and desire Ato protect by Letters Patent is:

l. A buckle comprising a frame bent up out of a single piece of wire so that its middle portion forms a continuous bar extending entirely across the top of the back, the said wire being carried downwardly and inwardly from the ends of said bar toform an opening in under the bar for threading the end of a webbing', then doubled upon itself andA carried-back to the ends of the bar and bent forwardly and downwardly from the ends of said bar to form sides, then inwardly to form pint-les, and a lever hinged-to said pintles, `the said lever being provided with superposed web engaging edges arranged to swing to a posit-ion respectively above and below said bar when the buckle is closed.

2. A buckle comprising a back having a web attaching member mounted on spring supports and a lever hinged to said back so that its pivotal points are substantially in the same horizontal plane with the top of said back, the said lever being provided with a pair of web engaging members arranged to cooperate with the web attachingfmember and to lie respectivelyabove and'below the top of the back but laterally of each other when the buckle is closed.A

VALTER A. 'HOLDEN l/Vitnesses:

MARGARET E. BAXTER, ADA M.GEsNER. 

